The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor device, and is applicable to, for example, the semiconductor device of the type that a timer is built therein.
A microcontroller is incorporated into each piece of equipment such as home electric appliances, audiovisual equipment, cell phones, automobiles, industrial machinery and so forth. The microcontroller is a kind of the semiconductor device that controls the operation of each piece of equipment by performing processing in accordance with a program stored in a memory. It is requested for components including the microcontrollers to be incorporated into the above-mentioned pieces of equipment to have the reliability depending on the applications thereof. Therefore, it is requested for the microcontroller to detect a fault that occurs in the microcontroller itself, in addition to detection of faults that occur in a sensor, an actuator and so forth that are to be controlled by diagnosing the above-mentioned sensor, actuator and so forth.
One example of the above-mentioned semiconductor device is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013/20978.